Splintered by A.G. Howard

Splintered by A.G. Howard

Published 2013 by Amulet Books

371 pages

 

 

 

      If you enjoyed the original Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll and would not want anything changed about the story then this book is probably not for you. On the other hand if you would like to see a much darker version then you may like this story. This story has all that a good fantasy should have such as, magic, curses, love triangles, and mythical creatures. Splintered is a story about a girl named Alyssa Gardner who is the great-great-great granddaughter of Alice Liddell the original human girl to go to Wonderland. The females in Alyssa’s family have been cursed ever since Alice went to Wonderland and it is up to Alyssa to break the curse.

 

     I love a good love triangle and this book actually had two with Alyssa being a part of both.  The first part is between Jeb the boy who has been her best friend forever and the guy she has always had a crush on and his girlfriend. Jeb is the skater punk type. He has piercings, longer hair and scars. Don’t let his image fool you though he is a sweet heart who is very over protective of Alyssa and is always trying to keep her out of trouble. Jeb also had a very rough childhood. Jeb’s girlfriend on the other hand is Alyssa’s worst enemy and not a very nice girl. She has money and problems at home so she thinks it is ok to treat others poorly especially Alyssa. She is the perfect prima-donna type girl, Blonde hair perfect body. You know the girl most of us always wanted to be or couldn’t stand. The other love triangle as I mentioned also contained Alyssa but it also included Jeb. The third member of this love triangle is Morpheus the caterpillar from the original story, but in this story he has turned into a blue and black moth. He is a hard character to tell much about without giving away plot but he is the bad boy, player type that would make most girls swoon. Throughout the story it is hard to tell which side he is truly on and what he is up to.

 

   I really liked the character development especially Alyssa’s she starts out as a girl trying to rebel against the curse. As the story progresses she is trying to break the curse. There were times where I did not like her character because she acted before she thought which usually got her and Jeb into trouble. She was very naive and trusting in the beginning. As the story progressed she started to think about her actions and didn’t just trust everything she was told and she became a very strong lead character. Morpheus’s character was so well developed that I disliked him and liked him all at the same time. He was charming and mischievous but he had his own reasons for doing things that I did not like. Jeb by far was my favorite character he wore his heart on his sleeve and I wanted him and Alyssa to get together so badly. Jeb was like the boy next door that was always there to help.

 

   I also liked the way A.G. Howard described Wonderland. She did not just take Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland and just add her story to it. Instead she made it her own. As I mentioned in the beginning this is a much darker version of Wonderland and none of the characters you would remember from Wonderland are the same. They are all there but they are not as Lewis describes them. For example the walrus from the walrus and carpenter story is actually called an Octobenus and he is half walrus and half octopus. This may make you think twice about reading it, but don’t this just adds to the story.

 

 

     I recommend this story to young adults and adults alike. This book was so full of interesting new additions to the original wonderland that it is hard to put the book down. Throughout a lot of the book I was in shock at how things were unfolding and wanted to read more just to find out what Alyssa would do next. This story is darker than the original but it is worth reading and the ending makes the whole book worth the read.